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Reorganization Brings Changes and a New Addition to IT’s Leadership

Stan Hammer has assumed the role of Chief Technologist and IT Security Office, Assistant CIO. Dan Berk has joined the Division of IT as Director of Applications and Systems, Associate CIO.

Through a position vacancy and recent reorganization the Division of IT has made two key leadership changes to better position the division for the future and our 2020 goals.

First, via a repurposed position, a new role has been established: the Director of Applications and Systems; Associate CIO. Joining IT in this new role is Daniel (Dan) Berk who comes to us most recently from CISCO Systems, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, where for the past 11 years he has served as Director of Applications, Global Support, Business Operations and Quality Assurance.

In his new role, Dan will oversee the merger of Systems and Operations, and Application Development and Data Management departments. These departments include Web Services and the IT Help Desk. Craig Fowler, Chief Information Officer, stated “The purpose of this merger is to better serve university clients by integrating IT areas that work closely together to ensure, and increase, the efficient and effective operation of IT applications and systems. Dan brings some very impressive experiences and accomplishments that will benefit the achievement of our objectives. ” Dan’s leadership role involves understanding how applications, systems, the web, and the help desk can enhance the way they work together to deliver a benchmark client experience. These efforts will likely result in refining and changing some IT business and management processes and metrics. This will require a collaborative approach with our functional area partners, and within IT, in decisions. In addition, as associate CIO, Dan will act in the absence of the CIO. Dan holds a BS in Business Administration/Information Systems from the Ohio State University and Masters Certificate in Project Management from George Washington University. Prior to his work at CISCO, Dan held IT leadership positions with The Limited Retail Brand, Bank One, and AT&T.

Secondly, Stan Hammer will assume a new role as Director, Chief Technologist and IT Security Office; Assistant CIO. . This change will now enable IT to focus on some key technical architectures that are critical for the university as we grow and meet the increasing demands for IT capabilities. One example of this type of architecture is our underlying approach for the management of identities, which include students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, community members, industry experts, research partners, and more. How these are handled impact system access, capabilities they can use, and how collaboration and scholarship can take place. Further, Stan will oversee the development of a strategic and emerging technologies planning process. The creation of this role also enables IT to move IT Security out of IT’s operational areas, a better business practice and will provide additional focus on researching and understanding security best practices and impacts on university processes.

Stan has been instrumental in numerous key technology launches and improvement efforts for WCU. This includes the initial implementation of Banner, the automation of the Employee Account Termination process that has become a model for the state, the creation of the new intranet capability WCUHUB, and currently the implementation of Blackboard Analytics, WCU’s data warehouse solution.